SOME ANECDOTES FROM SAADI 335 ing to offend the man, gave him ten dīnārs to go somewhere else, and the gift was gladly accepted. Some time afterward the fellow returned to the prince and complained that an injustice had been done him by the smallness of the donation: 'for,' said he, at the place where I now am, they offered me twenty dīnārs to go somewhere else and I'll not accept it.' 'Oh,' laughed the prince, 'don't accept it, for if you stay longer they will be glad to offer you fifty.' A single other illustration of Persian humor from Saadi may be added. The point of the story is this: A man who was suffering from inflamed eyes went to a horse-doctor for treatment. The veterinary gave him some of the salve that he used on animals and the man lost his eyesight. He then brought a suit in court to recover damages. The judge, after weighing the evidence in the case, handed down his decision as follows: 'There are no damages to be recovered; the man would never have gone to a veterinary if he had not been an ass!' 6 This and a score of other instances might be cited to show the light touch of Saadi's wit beside his acknowledged poetic talents. His rare gift as a poet is seen particularly in the Bostan and in the Divan, a collection of his short poems in the lyrical strain, which justify his title of the Nightingale of Persia.' Some of the metrical stanzas in the Gulistan are gems of poetic thought, and as an example of Saadi's fancy I quote from it the following lines, which show his fineness of imagination and delicacy of touch. 'I saw some handfuls of the rose in bloom, I said, "What means this worthless grass, that it Then wept the grass, and said, "Be still! and know, The kind their old associates ne'er forego. Mine is no beauty, here, or fragrance — true; But in the garden of the Lord I grew.” '1 The hills beyond the grave of Saadi and to the east of the 1 Saadi, Gulistān, tr. Eastwick, p. 115. Allahu Akbar Gate possess one or two points of interest that may be mentioned. One of these is a large hollow in the rock, partly natural and partly artificial, called from its shape the 'Cradle of the Demon' (Kahvārah-i Dīv), although its precise origin is not known; the other is a ruined structure situated somewhat east of it and known as 'Bandar's Fortress' (Kal'ah-i Bandar), which is supposed to be the remains of a Sasanian castle. Near this are two very deep wells, one of which is known as 'Ali's Well' (Chāh-i Murtazah Alī) and described as a pool at the bottom of a series of steps surmounted by a building which gives the place the character of a shrine. It is said to occupy the place of an old fire-temple, and the story goes that the well sprang up as a miracle to quench the flame of the old Zoroastrian faith when the true religion of Mohammed came into Persia.1 There are also some Achæmenian remains about four miles southeast of Shiraz and still farther beyond there are some sculptures of Sasanian kings who were Zoroastrians, but I did not inspect them.2 My allusion to Zoroastrianism leads me to speak of the socalled Gabars, or fire-worshippers, of Shiraz, as the city knew only their religion in Sasanian times, whereas scarcely fifty of their faith now live there. I took the earliest opportunity of sending to Rustam Shah Jahan, the leading merchant among them, the letter I carried from his brother in Isfahan.1 He occupied a shop adjoining the main bazaar, and as I entered the room behind the outside booth, I found a number of persons 1 See Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians, p. 286; Curzon, Persia, 2. 108; Ker Porter, Travels, 1. 698. 2 The earliest notice that I have seen of these ancient monuments is in Masudi (A.D. 943), Les Prairies d' Or, ed. Barbier de Meynard, 4. 79. They have been described by various writers, among them Ker Porter, Travels, 1. 698-706, and Curzon, Persia, 2. 95, n. 2, and have been drawn by Flandin and Coste, Voyage en Perse, Ancienne, 1. pl. 55, and photographed by Stolze, Persepolis, 2. pl. 96; cf. also Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art, 5. 754. 8 The precise number at the time of my visit was 42, according to the statistics I subsequently obtained at Teheran from the Secretary of the Society for the Amelioration of the Persian Zoroastrians. See pp. 274-275, above. THE ZOROASTRIANS OF SHIRAZ 337 gathered there. Remembering my Isfahan experience and knowing that Shiraz was Islamitic to the extreme of fanaticism (so much so, that some of my friends later expressed surprise that my body-servant did not meet with persecution there, as he was a Christian convert from Mohammedanism), I began by making commonplace observations and inquiries in Oriental style, until I should be surer of my ground, and only indirectly indicating my interest in the religion. In this case, however, I found there was not the slightest occasion for reserve, as my host Rustam had been prepared by his brother's letter, and he told me that all the persons who were present were Zoroastrians, so that we could speak without hesitation on religious matters. From the conversation I learned that the Zoroastrian community in Shiraz keep up their religious observances and beliefs, in a general sort of way, but not so strictly as at Yezd and Kerman. They have no regular dastūr, or High Priest, nor have they any fire-temple, whereas in antiquity there must have been at least one pyræum at Shiraz, as is shown by the remains of an ancient Atash Kadah which a Mohammedan pointed out to me on the hill overlooking the city. No dakhmah, moreover, is kept up by the Zoroastrians of Shiraz, although this could hardly be expected in so small a community and it is their practice to inter the body in the earth, placing stones around it and over it. They possess no manuscripts of the Avesta, so far as I could learn, but they encouraged me in my hope of finding copies at Yezd, the chief centre of the Persian Zoroastrians, and told me that I would there meet the Chief Priest of the Faith and be able to learn from him more about religious matters. Despite their lack of knowledge concerning their creed- and it would be unreasonable, perhaps, to expect merchants and traders to possess technical information on theological points- I was favorably impressed by these believers in Ormazd. They seemed honest and thrifty, and fairly prosperous, considering the fact that they |